Jerry Goldsmith has sustained relationships with numerous top Hollywood directors, from Robert Wise to Joe Dante to Paul Verhoeven. However, no relationship was as longlasting or as fruitful as his collaboration with director Franklin Schaffner, for whom he scored Planet of the Apes, Patton, Papillion, The Boys from Brazil, Islands and the Stream and Lionheart. But before those classics there was The Stripper (1963), Schaffner's first feature film with a heartfelt and melancholy score by Goldsmith, then only 33 years old.

The title is a bit of a misnomer—the film is based on a play by William Inge titled A Loss of Roses and follows a failed Hollywood showgirl (Joanne Woodward) as she returns to her home town and begins a tentative romance with a young man (Richard Beymer). The story is hardly a day in the life of a stripper but rather a sensitive human drama about loneliness and love.

Goldsmith's score is one of his earliest available to collectors and is a rare chance to hear him tackle an established '50s-styled genre rather than push off into his own ‘60s territory. The score is permeated with melody, as well as some jazz elements, and is very much in the style of Alex North's scores for similar pictures—while still retaining Goldsmith’s unique voice. It is presented here in stereo from the original session masters. Also included for the sake of completeness are the various source cues (not by Goldsmith) and the songs recorded by Joanne Woodward for her strip act at the end of the film, only one of which was used in the picture.

As a special bonus, the CD is filled out with a true Goldsmith rarity: Nick Quarry, an unaired 1968 TV show (actually an abbreviated pilot known as a demonstration reel) produced by 20th Century Fox based on the Tony Rome detective film. Goldsmith wrote 11 minutes of music in his Our Man Flint/In Like Flint style which have never been heard—or for that matter, heard of! His complete score is presented here in clean mono.

What to say about Jerry Goldsmith (1929-2004), the reason so many of us are soundtrack collectors in the first place? The Los Angeles native knew early on he wanted to write music for the movies, had an extensive training in television in the 1950s (starting at CBS), and went on to an unparalleled career in the movies—capable of brilliance in every genre, and beloved by his peers and fans. FSM has released as many of his scores as we could get our hands on, from classic TV work like The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to famous features (Patton) and obscure gems like The Illustrated Man and 100 Rifles...heck, make that all of them. Jerry, we love you and miss you! IMDB

I think THE STRIPPER is absolutely great, and somewhat unusual in Goldsmith's career in the sense that it seems to be almost completely modelled on Alex North's hothouse melodramas. We all know the huge influence North had on Goldsmith, but it was mostly textural things like orchestral growls, whereas in THE STRIPPER it sounds almost like Alex North melodic material. Those long-line bluesy themes were something that Goldsmith never really went back to.

"Those long-line bluesy themes were something that Goldsmith never really went back to." ------------------------------ Thank God!!! ;) Part of my problem with A GATHERING OF EAGLES is that melodramatic sound he apes from the Golden Era. I like the militiary-style material and action stuff, but the other stuff exists in a world I can't get into. Although he did revisit the STRIPPER main theme again in JUSTINE :)

Listen at :55 in the cue "Quarry Cornered" (from NICK QUARRY) to hear the beginning of a section where Goldsmith layers solo line upon solo line, one at at time, in fascinating-and-fun, 60's-instrumentation scoring.